PHUKET: The holiday island of Phuket was struck by an earthquake at 4.18am today. Seismologists in Bangkok confirmed there had been a tremor.
People were awoken by the movement. Social media and the telephone system quickly became alive with comments by people who left their beds because of the shaking.
Seismologists said the quake measured 4.0 magnitude with its epicentre off Koh Yao.
Phuket is in an earthquake-prone zone. On March 25, a 3.8 shake occurred at 5.32am.
That earthquake was located at 7.89 longitude latitude 98.52, eight kilometres east of Phuket City, seismology.tmd.gov.th reported. It occurred at a depth of 23 kilometres.
On February 20 a magnitude 4.0 earthquake was felt on Phuket and other offshore islands in Thailand's popular Andaman Coast holiday region.
The quake was also felt in Phang Nga, the holiday province north of Phuket. Later reports said it was also felt in Krabi, another Andaman holiday province.
On May 5, 2014, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Chiang Rai province, leading to mass evacuations, huge cracks in roadways and the wrecking of many buildings, including temples.